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Merchandise sellers on Amazon wait to get paid

By The Seattle Times

Posted:
11/22/2012 12:01:00 AM MST

Updated:
11/22/2012 10:35:56 AM MST

Marge Belfry sold items from her scrapbook-supplies business in Mukilteo, Wash., through Amazon.com. However, she says that Amazon delayed making payments to her and suspended her account. (Steve Ringman, Seattle Times/M CT)

SEATTLE — For many small merchants, selling on Amazon.com is an easy way to boost their business in a tough economy — if only they can get paid.

Dozens of online sellers complain that Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. arbitrarily withholds their payments for as long as three months, jeopardizing their ability to
stay in business, according to a Seattle Times review of state records.

Sellers who say they've been hurt by this practice are the single most common source of complaints filed against Amazon with the Washington state attorney general's office in the past three years, The Seattle Times found. The attorney general's office received more than 370 complaints against Amazon, ranging from customers worried about online privacy to game-application developers demanding better financial terms.

But about 40 percent of the complaints came from small merchants who use Amazon's Web platform to sell their products. Of those, three-fourths complained that Amazon suspended or closed their accounts, tying up from several hundred dollars to more than $20,000.

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